A Girl and Her Pig
by FrozenDecay
Summary: "People always want to talk to the girl with the pig." Many people found Jesse and Reuben's relationship a puzzle. Why would anyone in their right mind befriend a wild pig? Truth be told, they hadn't expected to find a friend in each other either. It all started with a waterfall.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Minecraft: Story Mode nor any of its characters.**

 **Please R &R and let me know if you'd like to see more of this story!**

* * *

Jesse smiled up at the clear blue skies, speckled with several fluffy clouds. The sun was shining on her face, high up in the sky as it neared midday. As a gentle breeze that tousled her hair behind her, she was suddenly grateful for the hair clip Olivia had lent her.

"It's best if you have it," she had said to her several days earlier. They'd been at Olivia's house in the town square, discussing their building plans for the next building competition. "I got it as a gift several years ago, but it's not really my colour."

Olivia held the yellow clip in her hand. It's wasn't anything fancy – just a few pieces of plastic molded into a plain curve. Jesse picked it up, turning it around in her palm. "You sure?"

"Of course! My hair's too curly for it to stay in and like I said, I prefer reds and greens than yellow." Olivia had taken it back and slotted it into several pesky locks of Jesse's hair that always kept falling onto her face. "Consider it as a symbol of our friendship."

Jesse snapped her mind back to the present, pulling out a small list of items in Axel and Olivia's handwriting. It was easy to distinguish between the two: Olivia's writing was neat with a small flair at the end of her words, while Axel's boundless energy practically leapt from his hasty scrawls. "Cobblestone, sand and water." She said to herself. They'd agreed that Axel would go look for the cobblestone and sand, while she would find some water to draw from. " _Freshwater Jesse,_ " Olivia had told her, " _It needs to look crystal clear for the build._ "

This would be their first building competition as a group. From what they'd told her, the competition they'd face was pretty tough. Some group called the Ocelots somehow managed to win year after year, all the while mocking both Olivia and Axel for their individual builds. Their trophy shelf must be bursting at the seams!

Jesse looked ahead at the land around her. It had been worth the hour-long hike across the mountains to see all those untouched biomes, stretching as far as the eye could see. Plenty of trees, dirt and probably some seeds in that grass, but no water. She saw some sheep and cows grazing nearby. They had to drink from somewhere nearby, she thought to herself. The wind rustled the tree branches that loomed high above her head. She peered up at the leaves –there'd be a better view of the area from up there than on the ground. A particularly large pine tree stood out to her; she'd start there.

It looked even taller from the bottom than it did before, easily surpassing the apartment blocks Jesse passed daily back in town. There weren't many branches near the bottom – they only really began to sprout from the trunk towards the top. But the bark looked sturdy enough to act as footholds. It would have to do.

Jesse put her foot in the first hole she spotted and started to climb. It was relatively easy until she got halfway up and the trunk started to smooth out. As she stretched up for another piece, her left foot suddenly gave way underneath her. She yelped as she started to fall, managing to grab the bark at the last moment, but not before getting a good view of the drop beneath her.

"Why'd you have to look down?" she mumbled to herself as fear began to paralyze her limbs. It wasn't that she was afraid of heights, she just wasn't a fan of falling.

She looked up at the branches lying just out of reach. There wasn't a chance of reaching them in time, but maybe if she jumped…

The bark underneath her other foot started to creak. It was now or never. Using her last bout of energy, she leapt up just as her foothold broke away. Jesse grabbed onto the first thing she felt and pulled herself up. She latched herself onto the branch, panting heavily as her legs remained hanging in midair. Her heart was hammering out of her chest – that was way too close.

A small squirrel hopped up to her, inspecting her arm with a twitchy nose. "Sorry little guy," she breathed. "Didn't mean to barge into your tree like this." The squirrel flicked its bushy tail in response, its black beady eyes never leaving her face for one second. "I'll be just a moment." She hauled the rest of her body up as the squirrel jumped away, before continuing her journey upwards.

Twigs and smaller branches snagged and tugged at her overalls, tangling themselves in her hair as she came into proximity of the tree top. With one last push, she finally burst her out of the leafy prison. Her lungs drank itself silly on the fresh mountain air. Jesse smiled as the sun shined on her face, imagining rounds of applause from an invisible audience for her performance.

"And the crowd cheers as Jesse, climbing professional, wins the race by a landslide! Listen to them roar, AHHHH!"

Her squirrel friend popped up beside her and chipped softly in her ear. "Yeah, yeah I know," she waved it away as it impatiently bounced around her. "I'll be out of your tail in a moment!"

She had been right – the view was much better from up there. She could even see the thin glistening line of the ocean way out in the distance. About a mile away, the trees gathered closer together into a dense forest. Beyond that were the swamps; Axel had told her not to go beyond there. "It's super easy to lose your way in there: the trees stop any light from getting through and everything looks the same. Loads of people go missing in there."

A flock of crows suddenly emerged from the trees, dispersing from their exit point in all directions. No, she would not be going in there.

But besides that, it didn't look like there was any running water nearby…

No, wait, there was! Just as the woodland became denser there stood a considerable cliff face that continued for miles. A large waterfall ran off the grassy top and gathered in a large pool of water not too far from Jesse's position. That must be where the wildlife was drinking from.

Jesse screwed her face up as that sunk in. A watering hole was bound to be laced with all sorts of nasties – the furthest thing away from Olivia's request for clear, clean water. The glistening waterfall caught her attention. "The water looks pretty clear before it hits the pool," she mused. "Maybe I could fill the buckets from there?"

Speaking of falling…

The squirrel suddenly leapt away from her as several branches below creaked loudly under her weight. "Crap." Before she could adjust her footing the branches snapped clean in half, dragging her back down into the leaves.

She cried out as she fell through the tree, branches scratching at her arms and face. Her hands flailed as she tried to grab onto something, but she was falling so fast that everything she touched slipped past her fingers. Then she fell straight through the last bunch of branches, screaming as she hurtled towards the ground in a violent freefall.

"This is it," she thought to herself. "This is how I die." Maybe it would be quick and painless, or she would spend hours in agonizing pain before finally dying. Axel and Olivia would probably try to organize a fruitless search party when nightfall came. And hours, maybe days from now, someone would eventually come across her floating inventory: five buckets and a battered wooden sword.

Jesse squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for her brain to register the impact of her landing and the pain to lance up her spine.

Suddenly, she landed on something soft and warm. Her hands brushed against long, tangled hairs before whatever had broken her landing yelped and threw her off. She tumbled and rolled onto the grass until her legs collapsed onto a bush.

Around her, a flock of birds flapped their wings and took off into the sky, scattering feathers all over her face. There was a thick layer of grass and moss under her back that tickled her nape. Good signs so far. After brushing the feathers off, Jesse opened her eyes and looked up at the tree she had fallen out of. Apart from a few splintered branches dangling in the air, there was no indication of what had happened. She constricted and relaxed her muscles, rolled her wrists as a satisfying click reverberated through her joints, and wriggled her toes in search of any injuries. Apart from several stinging scratches on her cheeks and some fresh, aching bruises, she was fine.

 _She was fine_. Jesse started to laugh, grabbing tufts of grass around her and relishing the cool drops of dew. She was alive! She'd actually survived a fall from that height! The air was sweet with the smell of wild roses, the gentle breeze was soft and refreshing against her skin, and everything was fine!

Then she heard the growling.

Jesse halted in mid-laugh and looked up to see the source of the noise, as well as what had broken her fall.

Or at least what was left of it before it puffed into a cloud of smoke.

A pack of grey wolves edged towards her, stopping short of the ripples of smoke that spiraled and whorled above the grass.

"Uh…nice doggies." She slowly rolled over and pushed herself to her feet, somehow finding her feet. "Good doggies…" The wolves prowled closer, lowering their heads and flattening their ears against their skulls. She was close enough to see their fiery red eyes and the glossy beads of saliva running down their bared canines. Most of the pack were nothing more than skin and bones, their coats mangled and patchy from one too many fights. "You wouldn't want to eat me," Jesse backed away, watching the wolves follow her every move. "Look at me – can you see any meat on these bones? I'm practically one of you guys!"

Jesse glanced to her right and at the trees residing there. She could outrun them if she tried, but if she stayed on-ground they'd eventually catch up to her. Wolves in these areas were notorious for chasing their prey until they grew tired. You were more likely to trip up when you were out of breath than anywhere else. The cliff didn't look particularly manageable from up the tree, but if she could make it up several feet that would probably keep them at bay for a while, or at least until she could come up with a plan.

One particular wolf snarled loudly as it readied itself to pounce.

One…two…

She bolted it just as the wolf leapt at her, snapping its jaw at the space where her ankle had just been. The wolves howled behind her and gave chase. Jesse sprinted down the woodland, weaving through the trees and leaping over bushes, trying to put as much distance between her and her pursuers.

Some small part of her based in the adrenaline coursing through her veins, her pulsing heart and the oxygen pumping through her lungs. She scolded herself for enjoying being hunted by wolves, but that rebellious spark refused to die out.

Jesse thought of her life before meeting Axel, when all she cared about was making people smile with her cosplays at EnderCon. All those hours spent sketching elaborate designs, roaming the countryside for wool and leather, and months of cutting patterns, taking measurements and sewing. Going to bed with an aching back from huddling over her desk, pinpricked fingers and a pounding headache from the non-stop whirring of her sewing machine. Safe inside her house all day, every day.

This was an entirely different feeling altogether, and that wild part of her was loving every minute of it.

The sound of rushing water told her that she was getting close to the waterfall. Jesse could see the whole cliff just outside of the large clearing around it. The pack was no longer biting at her heels and were a safe distance away for her to stop and survey the cliff face for a moment.

The rocks were completely smoothened out without so much as a single crack to navigate upwards. The only way up was by climbing a long stretch of vines that ran all the way up to the top. There was just one problem: the vines didn't reach the ground and stopped about halfway down the cliff. Jesse couldn't spot any trees close enough to leap onto them, nor were there any blocks she could climb on top of to reach them.

But there had to be some dirt around the pool – this was a woodland after all. If she gathered enough before the pack caught up to her, she could build a tower all the way up to the vines.

With her plan fresh in her mind, she burst through a cluster of bushes and into the clearing. Several animals were gathered around the pool, lapping the water down their throats. None were dangerous, though.

"Shoo, shoo!" Jesse waved the animals away so she could start digging without the thought of any falling on top of her preoccupying her mind.

The cows and sheep immediately started to move away, as if they could sense the danger approaching them. However, a large group of pigs stubbornly remained close to the cliff, refusing to budge an inch.

She groaned loudly, cursing their laziness, but she didn't have any more time to waste. She started punching the ground, only collecting dirt from the grassy surface rather than risk digging a hole too deep to trap herself in. The pigs barely acknowledged her, making the occasional glance at her, before guzzling the water with their tongues.

When Jesse had collected enough dirt for a single-block tower, she ran up to the cliff face and prepared to start building. She was about to place the first block down when she heard a small oink at her feet.

A lone piglet stood at her feet, gazing up at her with a pair of big black eyes. Jesse looked down at it for a few seconds, ready to pass it off as nothing, before realizing the expression it made at her. Curiosity.

It was common knowledge that pigs were some of the dumbest animals in the world. With their distant and bored looking faces, they always seemed to come out of nowhere just cut you off your path. As if they had nothing better to do.

But this piglet was different. Unlike the rest of its group, its eyes were visibly wider and large enough for its pupils to look almost…human-like. Jesse ran her eyes down the rest of its tiny frame. Other than its eyes there was nothing that stood out about it, other than a dark patch on its left side.

"I'm sorry, but could you go away please?" she asked softly. It gave her another surprise – it oinked sharply and widened its eyes as if to display shock and mild outrage.

She had a sudden urge to apologize to it. "I don't mean it like that!" she affirmed, "It's just…" Wait, was she really having a conversation with a _pig_? She looked back at the other pigs and their expressionless faces, then back to the curious-looking one. No, her mind wasn't playing tricks on her. There was a clear difference between them. She did a double take when she looked at the piglet again, who appeared to be shaking its head in mild disapproval.

She blinked once. Twice. What a weird pig.

"Look…uh, pig," she bent down to properly meet its eye. "There's a pack of wolves chasing me right now, and they were pretty eager to take several bites out of me the last time I saw them." The piglet stared at her with wide eyes, glancing around the bushes as if expecting to spot a ravenous wolf waiting for it. "I've got a wooden sword with me, but it's not enough to hold off the whole pack. You and your buddies need to get far away from this place right now if you have any chance of surviving."

The piglet looked over to its group then back at Jesse. It grunted, as if in thanks, before hurrying off to the others. She watched it squeal at the pigs, jumping up and down with a frenzied expression. The other pigs looked over to it, gaze at each other sluggishly while twitching their snouts, and finally trotted off in an orderly fashion.

Jesse put her hands on her hips and watched them disappear into the bushes. "Well, you don't see that every day." She thought, shaking her head.

The bushes opposite her started to rustle, their leaves shaking from the force and falling to the ground. Jesse swiftly began constructing her tower. Those were _definitely_ too loud for a bunch of pigs.

As she placed the third block of dirt down, she heard a series of short, continuous snorts underneath her. With wide eyes, she saw the same piglet running around the bottom of her tower. "No!" The panic seeped through her raised voice as she tried to shoo it away. "You need to get away!"

Suddenly, a wolf leaped through the bushes and dashed towards the piglet, lapping its tongue around its cracked chops. It squealed loudly as it caught sight of the predator, freezing like a deer caught in the headlights.

"NO!" Jesse pulled out her sword and leapt down, bringing the tip of her weapon into the wolf's back just as it prepared to pounce. It whimpered as the sword went straight through its ribs, pinning it to the ground, before puffing into a cloud of smoke. The piglet met her gaze as it trotted up to her. "You alright?" she asked softly.

The piglet looked over her shoulder and started squealing again. Jesse looked back in time to see another two wolves jump through the brush, snarling as they made a beeline towards her. She pulled her sword back, waiting for them to make the first move. They leapt towards her with their jaws wide open. As they came into proximity, Jesse side-stepped out of the way and slashed her sword at their bellies. They were helpless as it pierced their underbellies and their momentum dragged it all the way down to their tails, cutting through it as easily as paper. Both wolves collapsed behind her at the piglet's trotters, puffing into smoke.

Just as Jesse smiled triumphantly, the sound of her sword snapping into two echoed across the clearing. "Stupid wooden swords!" she cursed at the remains of its handle.

On the other side of the bushes, Jesse could make out more growling as the pack drew closer. She turned on her heels, scooping the piglet into her arms in a single motion, and started on a new tower just as the rest of the pack came into view. She could see them prowling around the bottom of her tower, scratching at the dirt and trying to leverage themselves up it. But she didn't stop building for a second, falling into the rhythm of jumping, placing a block down and repeating.

The piglet, on the other hand, refused to look anywhere but up. As they came closer to the vines, it snorted into her ear. But Jesse was running out of blocks. She looked frantically up at the vines, trying to gauge how much farther she needed to build to reach them. It wasn't close enough.

"It's too far away! We'll have to jump for it!" She shouted at the piglet. It oinked back at her, expressing its disbelief. "I'm gonna toss you up. Grab onto the vines, and when I've caught up with you hold onto my back!"

Jesse shifted the animal in her arm so that she could hold onto its whole body by its back in her hand. She aimed it to the vines while continuing to place the blocks down with the other hand. This would have to be carefully planned – she'd need to throw it in mid-jump, and time her own leap after it had grabbed on. She couldn't stop – she'd lose the momentum she needed for her jump.

The piglet willed itself to be solid as a statue as Jesse readied herself. "One, two–" she leapt up, hauling the pig into the air and releasing her grip as it went over her head. "Three!"

The piglet squealed as it soared through the air, tucking its hind legs in tightly and stretching its trotters out to the vines as it fell into them. It quickly tangled its front legs into the foliage as it started to slip through, halting its sudden descent. It grunted back as if to say, _I'm alright_.

Jesse gave herself a short countdown as she came to her last blocks. "One, two–" In an instant, she'd already messed it up – she had waited too long and threw her last block down before she was ready. It was only when the block was in her hands that she realized her mistake. Leaping up, she could feel herself already losing momentum as she started to slow down, reaching the peak of her jump. Her hands blindly reached out for the vines as she felt herself starting to fall.

At the last second, her hand grazed a single vine outreached to her like a hand. Jesse grasped it, clenching it in her fists as she stopped in mid-fall. A low hiss escaped her lips as her brain suddenly registered her sudden stop and the gravity pulling her down. Pain stabbed through her shoulder sockets – it felt as if someone was trying to sever her arms off with their bare hands.

With her suspended hand, she reached for another vine, and then another and another, until she was finally able to rest her toes through several looped vines.

Her mind refused to let her forget about her time in the tree, quickly flashing her back to her fall and the lucky landing that had caused this whole mess. Jesse didn't dare to stop her ascent and kept her ears open for the sound of any snapping vines.

The piglet oinked at her as she paused beside it. It hung aimlessly by its front legs tangled in the vines, while its hind legs swung in the strong gales. It didn't have enough strength to find some vines to stick its hind legs into – if it even tried to free itself, the sudden movement could send it falling to its death.

Jesse looped her left arm through and under a bundle of vines, repeating the motion for her feet and started working at untangling the piglet's skinny limbs. Once its first leg came free, she grabbed its back and pulled the second leg through the last knot. After lifting the piglet to her shoulders, it latched its legs around her neck and under her breasts. Jesse continued climbing as its grip tightened, nearly choking the air from her lungs.

After what felt like an eternity, the end was finally in sight. She put her hands through the last bunch of vines and pushed the upper half of her body onto the ground. In a single movement, Jesse thrust her arms out in front of her and pushed her feet off the vines, army crawling through the piles of wet mud until her whole body was safely on the ground again.

The piglet jumped off her back as she rolled off her stomach and got to her feet. "We made it," she breathed in amazement, looking out to the breathtaking view in front of them. The tree line expanded into the distance, while the pointed tips danced in sync to the gentle breeze.

The piglet oinked its own expression of shock at their survival. They looked at each other, holding the other's gaze as smiles spread across their faces.

"We made it!" Jesse pumped her sore arms into the air as the piglet did its own celebratory dance – namely it jumping up and down. "Take that world," she whooped loudly, her voice echoing into the horizon. "We beat you!"

The piglet trotted over to the wide river beside them and greedily lapped the fresh, cool water. The river was relatively gentle as it ran off the cliff side, with the sound of running water drowning out the woodland melodies around them.

"And to the victors," Jesse took out her buckets and placed them on the ground. She took the first bucket "Go the spoils." She took the first bucket and held it in the water. The river was so clean she could see the pebbles and polished stones at the very bottom.

The piglet watched her in the corner of its eye as she continued to fill all five buckets to the brim. When she had finished, Jesse pulled out a long sturdy rod and threaded it through the bucket handles. She grunted softly as she lifted it up and onto her shoulders. The water sloshed around in the buckets, but Jesse managed to keep any from splashing out over the sides.

"Well, it's been great and all pig." The piglet tilted its head, looking at her with confusion in its eyes. She smiled down at it reassuringly. "But it's time we went our separate ways."

It was like it didn't even hear her – it just stared at her dumbly as if she had said a bunch of garbled nonsense. Jesse turned away and walked through the bushes, raising a hand up in goodbye as she went out of view. "Good luck finding your group!"

* * *

The piglet watched her hand vanish from view. He made a single oink as he looked at its reflection in the stream, staring into the reflection's sad eyes, and out to the horizon past the cliff. Sure, he _could_ go back and return to its group. They were unlikely to be too far away – he had specifically told them to head back to their home on the grassy plains, and none of them were smart enough to have a thought otherwise.

He looked back to the thick brush where the girl had disappeared through. It was completely down to chance that they'd met, nothing more than a coincidence. But even so…

On its own, the piglet felt incredibly empty and alone – with the rest of its group he always had felt like this. Oh, how he yearned for a proper conversation with anything with a brain! None of those pigs had provided anything close to that. But he had with her. Even more, in her arms, he had felt something he hadn't expected. A feeling as if he had finally found his home.

He looked down below the cliff at the grassy plains his group resided in, then back to the spot the girl went through. And as he did, he felt a gentle tug on his heart, as if some mysterious force had tied their lives together with something more than just chance.

Drawn to that bond between their beating hearts, the young piglet bounded through the bushes after her.


End file.
